Fulfilling The Hokage's Wish
by Vexarian
Summary: By the age of five, Naruto thought he knew what a birthday was. It was a day when everyone celebrated the death of Kyuubi while ignoring his existence, except, possibly, to steal his money.


**Fulfilling The Hokage's Wish**

_Chapter One_

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Naruto. But then again, do I really want it?

Note, if you are waiting for the next Chapter of Reincarnation Materia, don't expect anything. I dislike what I originally wrote, and have been trying to rewrite it from scratch. I do not know, when if I will ever return to the story with the new and improved version.

However, let's get to this new story, and a whole new start, shall we?

* * *

One's birthday is generally a festive time, a day of celebration, jubilation and generally, the showing that one cares for another, often times this is manifested through a gift, some token of appreciation if you will.

However, this is of course not always true...

One small boy's birthday has never been a time of joy, at least not for him. Oh, there was always joy, but never any for him, there was a fantastic party across the entire village, but he was never allowed to join in...

On that day, he always sat in his small apartment, watching out his window, occasionally he would go out, but he was always unwelcome. He was used to the unkind treatment from most people, but it always seemed much worse at this time of year.

He furrowed his eyebrows together, crossing his arms over his small chest.

Maybe this year would be different? It was a hopeful thought, but no one should begrudge him for it. He was lonely, none of the children would play with him very long, their parents always took them away, occasionally they'd yell at him and call him names when they did...

He nodded and hopped off his bed, running over to the door of his apartment, and tripping himself up on the way, he hopped and swung his arms around to regain his balance and continued on. Damn it, he was going to be a Ninja! Ninja don't trip!

The kid grumbled and grabbed onto the doorknob, swinging his front door open then closed again.

He looked around wide eyed once he got into the festival itself. Everything looked so amazing, everyone was dressed so nice, and there were decorations everywhere. He noticed his favorite color fairly dominant amongst the decorations, Orange.

Everyone seemed happy, smiling and laughing, well unless they were looking at him, then they were glaring at him, and whispering to each other, "What's _he _doing out today..."

"Probably out to ruin the festival..." Another answered and turned away.

He furrowed his eyebrows together again, squinting his eyes closed. Jerks...

He ignored them all and looked around, walking around aimlessly, without a destination or anything on his mind.

Soon enough it was noon, and his stomach grumbled, demanding food. He groaned and looked around, what could he have for lunch?

Over there, that stand was giving out food!

He smiled and pulled out his wallet, a little green frog he was given by gramps a few months ago, he popped it open and counted the bills inside with a little difficulty, his math wasn't very good.

He went over to the food stand and waved his froggy wallet happily, "Hey old man! I want some food!" He called out, in his usual loud, brazen fashion.

The man, who was actually only in his thirties looked down and disguised a sneer. It was the little brat...

"Oh... I don't know if you can afford it..." The shopkeeper said, doing his best to keep any venom out of his voice.

"I got plenty a' money!" The child returned, waving his froggy at the man. It was quite true, it had only been a few days ago that he got his monthly stipend, and he hadn't spent any of it yet.

A glint was sent through the shopkeep's eye as it followed the rather fat looking wallet. "Oh? Let me see if you have enough..." He said, putting on the kindest face he could manage.

Naruto nodded confidently as the man took his wallet, opening it just out of sight of the boy and looking through. The brat had quite a pretty penny on him... Or at least he did, as the Shopkeeper palmed out all of the bills.

In a somewhat condescending tone, he returned the kid's now empty wallet, "Kid, we use money to pay for food, come back when you have some."

The so called brat blinked and opened his wallet and squinted at the sight, or rather lack thereof. He pointed and loudly cried out, "Hey you shit-head! You stole all my money!"

Of course this loud cry caused quite a few bystanders to begin to pay attention.

The shopkeeper of course, played innocent, "I'm not sure what the kid's talking about. His wallet was empty when he gave it to me." This should help to make up for the shop the brat destroyed six years ago.

"Liar! I need that money!" The blond kid screamed back, only for the crowd he had gathered to begin to break away.

He squinted at the shopkeep, who returned with a glare. It became overwhelmingly obvious that he wasn't going to be getting his money back any time soon...

His stomach groaned again and he clutched it. Ugh, he was so mad he forgot how hungry he was...

The blond child slowly shuffled his way off, looking for something to eat, unfortunately everywhere he saw, he'd get chased away from if he tried to steal anything.

Damn jerk... that was all of his money too...

He tried to ignore his stomach groaning as he sat down against a building, he wasn't even very sure where he was...

"Are you okay?", a voice interrupted him from trying to distract himself from his hunger, and he looked up to see a brown haired girl, about eleven years old looking down at him.

"I'm so hungry..." The boy groaned out, his stomach gurgling to accentuate it.

The girl blinked and giggled at him, after a moment he found himself smiling back at her.

"Are you lost? Where are your parents?" She asked.

He just looked down for a moment, "I don't have any..."

Her face contorted in thought for a moment. "Well that won't do...", she reached down and took his hand, pulling himself up.

"Let's get you some food." She said, bringing him around to the other side of the building, an opened food stand.

He blinked and looked up at her, "I don't have any money... Somebody stole it all..." he grumbled out, wrinkling his nose at the memory of that mean old man.

"Oh, I'm sure we can't let a little kid starve because of a little thing like that..." An older man said as he put a steaming bowl on the counter.

The young blond kid approached the counter and looked at the steaming bowl of food, "I can have this?"

The older man smirked and nodded, and Naruto immediately hopped up onto one of the stools and took the chopsticks, looking at the steamy broth for a moment before invading it with the two wooden sticks.

He strung out some of the noodles, and brought them to his lips, the aroma wafting around his nose. After a moment's pause, he grabbed them in his mouth and took a tentative bite.

His eyes widened and he paused for a few moments, the two looking in curiously before he seemed to snap out of it and began to suck the noodles into his mouth, devouring the food in front of him.

Almost as soon as he started, he had lifted the bowl of broth up to his mouth, and slowly drained it into his small stomach.

He let out a content sigh, "What was that?"

The old man smirked, "That was a medium bowl of Miso flavored Ramen. Come back any time to Ichiraku's, kid."

The blond kid hopped off the stool and smiled widely at the old man and his daughter, "Will do! Next time I'll pay for it too!"

Now with a full stomach, and quite a bit happier then before, the six year old kid took off once more.

It hadn't taken all that long until something else happened though. He had been walking about, not really paying attention when it had happened.

He tripped again, stubbing his foot on a rock or something, and fell over. Unfortunately, it was rather crowded, and he hit a little girl, about his age, dragging her down to the ground too in an attempt to get his balance.

He pulled himself up and saw her blink, he rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry...", unfortunately his apology wasn't appreciated very much, apparently. A tall man, probably the girl's dad pushed him roughly and righted the girl.

"Get away from my daughter you little brat!" He sneered at him.

A crowd was drawing, and they were whispering amongst one another, "Did you see what that brat did?" "That poor little girl..." "Why isn't he locked up..."

"Damn demon, I'll teach you for hurting children!" One particularly large man yelled, raising his up high, and making Naruto cringe. Damn it, somebody always got really angry with him today...

A smaller man latched onto the large man's arm, keeping him from throwing the punch, and trying to calm him down. "It's not worth it... I don't like the little brat either, but remember the consequences..."

"Get off me!", the larger man threw the smaller one away, knocking him into a stand, and lunging forward at the blond kid.

Naruto threw himself out of the way, kicking his feet to get up, he looked around to see the formerly crowded street had cleared up immensely, all of the people clinging against the buildings and provided a wide berth.

Unfortunately, this still left him with a very enraged, entirely irrational man after him. He just had to run until help got here...

The man reached out to try and grab him, but he ran out of reach as he pulled himself up. He needed somewhere to hide! Where?!

There! There was a small crack between two buildings, he could run through there to another street!

Unfortunately, this plan was quite flawed, and he found out soon enough that it was in fact, a dead end.

He swung himself around to try and run back before he was cornered, only to find it was too late and the large man was at the mouth of the alley grinning madly.

"Fucking demon..." He murmered, cracking his knuckles.

"What did I ever do to you!" Naruto cried out, pointing at the angry looking man, trying to keep himself determined.

"Shut up!", his answer came as the man closed the distance between them and tried to throw another punch at him.

Naruto cringed and covered his head, only to feel nothing. He opened an eye to see the man straining against another man, dressed nicely with a hitaite on. His head was up, and sweating as a Kunai pressed against his neck.

"You should keep yourself better, civilian. You know how the Sandaime dislikes those who break his law..." a quiet, but strong whisper came out from the Shinobi.

"B-but, the demon..." The man yelped out, only for the Kunai to be brought closer against his throat, drops of blood springing free.

"Shut up." The Shinobi whispered. He glanced over at Naruto and jerked his head, "Get out of here."

Naruto gulped and nodded, running out of the alley and panting heavily. After a few moments he turned back, to see a dark, empty alley.

"Hi!", he blinked and turned around to see a young girl about his age, maybe a little older.

"Oh? Uh, Hi!" Naruto said, recovering after a moment.

"My name is Toushou Tenten, who are you?" She smiled.

"Uzumaki Naruto..." He blinked and rubbed the back of his neck.

Naruto was just starting to wonder when her parents would take her away and call him names when they arrived...

"Having fun?" a familiar voice came from behind him, and he tiled his head up to see the Shinobi from before standing behind him.

"Uh?" Naruto let out an intelligent reply.

"So, Naruto. Are you having a good birthday this year?" The man said, kneeling down to be at eye level with the small boy and the girl.

"It's his birthday daddy? But I thought it was the festival today?" The girl asked curiously.

"It's both, he has a very special birthday." The man smiled at his apparent daughter.

"I'm not sure..." Naruto answered, how was he supposed to gauge how good a birthday was? He guessed it was about normal this year...

"So, have you gotten any good gifts this year?" Toushou asked, he hadn't kept up much on the blond child, but surely...

"Gifts?" Naruto asked curiously, what did his birthday have to do with gifts?

Toushou blinked, "Well, yes, generally one is presented with gifts on their birthday..." he explained, surely there must be...

"I've never gotten any..." Naruto answered, blinking confused. He was supposed to get presents on his birthday?

Toushou took a thoughtful expression for a moment, "Say, Naruto, what's your birthday usually like?"

"Well, usually I walk around during the festival, and people usually ignore me, but sometimes they act like that mean old man who stole all my money. But at night I can watch the fireworks from my window!" Naruto explained after a moment's thought.

Oh, this wouldn't do... No, this would not do at all...

"Say, Tenten? How would you like it if Naruto spent the rest of the day with us?" Toushou asked his little girl.

"I don't mind daddy." Tenten answered.

"Good." Toushou said as his mind went to work, there was planning to be done, no child should be openly hated on their birthday, especially not this one. Not for who this child is, for what he represents.

"Daddy? I thought we were going to go watch the fireworks?" Tenten asked, scrunching her eyebrows together while she and Naruto stood by the door of the weapon shop.

"Don't worry Tenten, we have plenty of time before it's dark enough for them to start, I just have to take care of something quickly." Toushou said as he walked into the back room.

"What's your dad doing?" Naruto asked innocently enough of the brown haired girl.

"I don't know." Tenten answered, the seven year old was confused, but Naruto's tragically short attention span was already preoccupied.

He was looking at the pointy implements of death hanging across the wall, recognizing some of the basic shapes from the first week of his Ninja Academy training. A look of pure awe was very clear on his face.

"Ooh, what's this!" The blond boy asked as he grabbed something off a wall.

"Ah! Be careful!" Tenten yelped as she ran to help Naruto, "That's a Chained Kama!"

She struggled with the miniaturized scythe for a moment and wound the chain around her arm, hanging it back on the wall.

"Oh! What's this!" Another cry came and Tenten looked to see Naruto with a huge windmill Shuriken. She squealed and ran over to catch it as he tossed it over his shoulder.

"What's that!" "Over There!" "Awesome!" "Ooo!"

Toushou blinked as he entered the room again, and saw an enormous mess, Naruto was standing by himself staring up at a Nodachi with an awestruck expression. His daughter was underneath a pile of misplaced weapons and struggling.

The older Shinobi took a place behind Naruto, "Like it huh?"

"Uh-Huh!" Naruto said, nodding as he refused to take his eyes off the long-Kodachi.

He couldn't really blame the boy, he was rather proud of the Nodachi himself, he used the best steel available, and had dozens of hidden chakra seals written across the blade and it's sheath. Even if the intricacies of it's creation went unnoticed by the small boy, he wouldn't forget the weapon.

Toushou reached up and took the Nodachi off the wall, and pulled it slightly out of the sheath, revealing the polished silver of the blade, so clear he could his himself reflected in it.

Toushou directed his vision down at the blond child who was still looking at the blade, and it clicked within his mind.

"Tenten, clean up this mess, I'll just be a minute." Toushou said, taking the Nodachi with him back out of the main room.

Tenten groaned, her eyes which were in effect the only parts of her visible from the pile of lethal, lethal instruments began to water.

Some time later, the three of them were sitting back on a hill, staring up at the starry sky as bright, colorful displays of explosives were shown.

* * *

Tenten was doing her best to look away from Naruto, a rather miffed expression on her young features, compared to the oblivious expression on the hyperactive child's face.

Naruto yawned widely, rubbing his eyes as he slowly woke up, very unwillingly stolen from his slumber by the sunlight.

He blinked his eyes open and saw a most unusual sight in his small apartment's bedroom. Sitting on the floor there was a large brown box sitting silently on the floor.

He didn't remember this being here before... He placed his hands against the side of the gray material, feeling the texture, as if it would give him a clue as to what was within. After a few moments of nothing happening, he decided to do what any six year old would do when faced with a nondescript brown box of unknown origins.

He ripped it open with a smile on his face.

His eyes widened as he looked into the now open box. Inside there were...

"Ninja Weapons!" Naruto called out, there were Kunai, Shuriken, Windmill Shuriken, bundles of Ninja-Wire, and a lot more stuff he didn't know what to call.

Within mere minutes, Naruto was standing with a pair of Kunai in his hands, amongst a veritable mountain of Ninja equipment.

He looked back and forth between the box and the much larger pile of weapons, wondering how they all fit into the box for a few moments.

But then, his mind turned to more important matters, as cued by his stomach grumbling.

There must be something in the kitchen...

Of course he didn't get too far before he came to a stop.

Sitting innocuously in his kitchen, laid out on the table there was the sword from the other day. The sheath of the Nodachi was smooth, and the hilt was firm, he slowly, awkwardly pulled the Nodachi from it's home. He had to grab a hold of the blade itself and nicked his hand a few times, due to the length of it.

He held up the long, finely polished steel, it was so pretty... He couldn't wait until he could use it, he'd have to ask about it today at the Academy...

"Daddy?"

"Hm?", The slender, somewhat effeminate looking man queried as he looked up from his writing desk.

It was his daughter, standing by the door, presumably home from her school day.

"How was your day Sweetheart?", he asked.

"It was fun daddy, Iruka-Sensei is a really nice teacher!" Sakura said happily, before her face turned down, "But some of the other girls are really mean..."

Her father frowned, he hoped she'd find some friends at the academy soon. He wished he could help, but it really wouldn't do any good if he did.

"Anything else happen today?" He decided to continue his line of questioning.

Sakura blinked, taking a thoughtful expression for a moment before speaking up, "Oh! That boy, Naruto brought in this really neat sword! He asked Iruka-Sensei how to use it, but he just said to wait until weapon's class."

"Naruto?" Sakura's father blinked, bringing his eyebrows together in thought. "I wonder where he got it..."

"Maybe he got it as a present at the festival yesterday!" The small kunoichi-to-be chirped helpfully.

His eyes widened, he had forgotten entirely about that. "Oh! That's right, Naruto's birthday would have been yesterday."

"It was?" Sakura asked curiously, his birthday was on the same day as the Festival?

But this didn't sate his curiosity on the matter, why did he have a sword? There was only one person to ask about this matter!

"I'll be back around Dinner Time sweetheart." The pink haired man said, standing up and walking out of his office, grabbing his coat as he did so.

"Hey, wait... How do you know about Naruto's Birthday, Daddy?" Sakura called after him.

* * *

"Yo Kan!"

"Hmph?" The much more masculine man answered, looking up from his work on an out of shape Kodachi. Ah, it was just Koushoku, he thought he recognized that voice.

The pink haired pretty-boy took a chair near the weaponsmith's anvil.

"Any particular reason for your visit?" Kan asked, without taking his eyes off the bent Kodachi.

"Ah yes, my daughter informed me that the Uzumaki child brought a rather attractive sword to the academy today. Being the most skillful weapon smith in the village, you wouldn't know anything about this, would you?" The effeminate man asked.

Kan let his hand reach down, groping around the base of the anvil until he felt a familiar wooden handle. He gripped it tightly and brought it up, then down, slamming it down with enough force to create a shockwave.

"Was that really necessary?" Koushoku asked, pulling a come out of his pocket and adjusting his hair so he didn't look quite as much like a spooked cat.

"Sometimes they need a bit of force." Kan smirked and put the hammer down on the now straightened Kodachi.

"Anyway, yes, I do know of Naruto's new Nodachi. I forged it after all." Kan said.

"Wait, you mean that sword's the one you've been working on?" Koushoku said, shock splayed across his face, "I hope you didn't charge the kid too much."

"Not a penny." Koushoku replied as he took the Kodachi and brought a sharpening stone to the blade.

"Any particular reason why?" The pink man asked, not following Kan's logic very well.

"Simple, it was his birthday." Koushoku answered as he continued to sharpen the blade.

"Now Kan, if your going senile, you should wait until your at least sixty. I know you were good friends with the Yondaime, but there's no reason to give him such a luxuriant gift for his birthday." Koushoku reasoned.

The pink haired man let his imagination wander for a moment, thoughts of a younger version of himself being surrounded by hordes of cute women, fine foods and extravagant gifts. Back in reality, Koushoku was drooling a little, "I mean, imagine everything that the villagers are giving him for his Jinchuriki status!"

"I was. I spent the day with him yesterday... It was quite informative on the views of the villagers towards the boy." Kan said, a less-than-happy expression covering his face.

"Huh?" The androgynous man asked ever so eloquently, rudely pulled from his daydreams.

"Well, first I was forced to enforce the Sandaime's law on an out of control civilian. Throughout the day I constantly felt people whispering and glaring behind my back when I was with him. And when I dug for some information from the boy, it was rather... Displeasing..." Kan said, causing his friend to grimace.

Kan didn't say anything as Koushoku disappeared abruptly.

* * *

There's no way it could be as bad as Kan had said. There was simply no way for it to be that way.

Koushoku fired his powerful leg muscles off a rooftop, propelling himself forward again in his bounding.

Kan must have misunderstood or something. The villagers couldn't possible loathe Naruto, it just didn't make sense! He was the son of the Yondaime, the jailer of the Kyuubi!

Koushoku slammed his heel down, bringing himself to a full stop as he looked down into a market street, spying a spiky mop of golden hair, trying to buy some food.

He seemed fine...

Koushoku watched for some time, and while Naruto was never struck, never harmed in any way, it was still all too obvious the villager's feelings.

It was a rather sobering experience, and soon he felt a chill. Looking up, Koushoku realized the sun was already dipping.

He'd better be getting back home, he promised his daughter after all. He had to do some thinking.

Had he been naïve?

* * *

The Clan Head of the Harunos looked around, surely there must be something he could give Naruto as a belated birthday present from his family.

His eyes flashed around his office, taking stock and trying to find something good.

The first thing he focused on was a floor lamp, then immediately shifted over to an overstuffed album of nude pictures from across the elemental countries... Too personal...

Set of Kunai? No, Kan had taken care of that better then he ever could.

"Daddy?", Hm... Maybe wrap a bow around her and- Wait, Stop! what was he thinking?! He shook his head and looked back around.

His little black book, which was closer to the size of a dictionary... He wouldn't appreciate that as much as himself.

"Daddy?" ...Damn it, no!

"What is it Sakura?" Koushoku asked, turning his attention back to his small daughter.

"Mommy told me she wanted you to work on Chapter Sixty Eight tonight." Sakura said, holding up a large pink book, with a great deal of trouble.

That's it... He picked up the large pink book and read the text on the front, "The Special Haruno Edition Ninja's Kama Sutra..." He smirked and put the book down onto his desk and walked over to a large man sized safe, spinning the lock and pulling the thick door open.

Inside the safe were several large stacks of the pink book on his desk, he grabbed one off the top and closed the door.

* * *

Naruto blinked, it happened again! He woke up and there was a new present sitting in his bedroom. This one was wrapped in brown paper, not in a box though, and it had a pink ribbon...

With all the zeal of a six year old he tore into the thick paper, revealing the hard cover of the pink book underneath.

The large silver colored words on the front didn't make much sense to him, until he recognized the word Ninja.

He didn't recognize the word Kama Sutra, but this must be a book on Ninjas!

He was going to read every single word!


End file.
